scrubbedexpat091

At the rate Tredeau is going he may not be able to add or keep all of the Liberal seats in BC. This pipeline buying hasnt been popular here and may lose him support.

Oakvillian

Ask the people of Lac Megantic. The train that destroyed their town was carrying Bakken crude, so not quite the same thing as the bitumen + diluent that KM will carry, but the volatile diluent for Alberta bitumen makes it almost as unattractive to carry by rail.

I think governments at all levels have handled the current issue extremely badly, but in terms of environmental risk I'd far rather have oil transported by pipeline than by rail. Whether it should be transported at all is a debate that has run its course, IMO: the oil is going to be extracted anyway, and there's little doubt on the overall economic benefit to Canada of getting it to tidewater efficiently so that its value on the international market can be maximised.

Almost Canadian

I have to admit that I have little knowledge of the outcomes of pipeline spills, irrespective of what they are carrying, nor do I have any real knowledge of the difference in the carbon emitted during transportation via rail or pipeline. However, I would have expected that the authorities that did look into this did so and, as Kinder Morgan has yet to lose any case that went before the Courts (which is believe are approaching 20) it appears to be that all such things have been looked into.

From what I have been able to tell, it appears that there was no real reason why the pipelines that were sought to go east should not have been approved too, albeit after doing things that needed to be done to consult or discuss with those that were not sufficiently consulted but which, I suspect, was rejected so as to keep those opponents in Quebec happy. Local interest v national interest issues appear to have been resolved in the favour of the minority when the Privy Council decided upon such powers under sections 91 and 92 of the constitution, which I am led to believe, is exactly what the drafters were seeking to avoid after looking at the US experience.

Hey ho, life goes on.

Edo

Regardless of the politics involved or the supposed environmental repercussions, I think it was just about time that the Federal govt. used its powers to get something of national significance proceed and stop the drama that was being played by provincial parties for whatever reason. We can debate on whether they chose the best option or not by buying the project but at least this will set some precedence. We can't allow our national interests to be taken hostage by a minority few politicians and I certainly hope that some govt. in the future would be able to do the same with Energy East to completely eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

Oakvillian

These pipelines have little or nothing to do with Canada's dependence on foreign oil. They're all about getting Alberta (and to a lesser extent Saskatchewan) oil fields better connected to their export markets, by providing pipeline access to tanker terminals on tidewater. It's about enabling Canadian oil exports, not limiting Canadian oil imports. If it was really about Canadian self-sufficiency then the projects would be about building refining capacity and ensuring Canadian processors can do the "value-addition" of producing usable product, rather than schlepping the bulk bitumen and heavy crude all the way across the country for somebody else to do the downstream value addition and sell it back to Canada at a profit.

MarkG

I don't know about Canada, but, from what I've been told, companies are reluctant to build new refineries of any significant size in America because the environmental regulations and future uncertainty over government policy make them prohibitively expensive. Probably cheaper to ship the oil to China, where they'll just dump all the waste in the river, and have them send petrol back to us.

Looks like the last new refinery in America that can handle over 100,000 barrels a day was built in the 70s.

I can just imagine the bleating from the Usual Suspects if we tried to build a few here.

Edo

I fully support your case for refineries. But in my post I was referring to Energy East when I said lets reduce our dependency on foreign oil, not Trans Mountain.

scrubbedexpat091

"Federal Court of Appeal has quashed the government's approvals to build the Trans Mountain expansion project — a major victory for Indigenous groups and environmentalists opposed to the $7.4-billion project."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tas...p=FB_Post_News